Marshall Lobbestael, the senior quarterback from Washington State, has been selected as the Manning Award Player of the Week. Lobbestael earns the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl's Facebook contest.

Lobbestael, a native of Oak Harbor, Wash., completed 32-of-49 passes for 377 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Cougars to a 31-27 victory Colorado. Two of the three touchdowns occurred in the final three minutes, including a 63-yard game-winning connection. As a senior, Lobbestael had learned to accept his role as the backup quarterback on the team, starting only a handful of games throughout his career. However, he has truly stepped up to the occasion since Jeff Tuel suffered a broken collarbone in the season opener - this is the second time that Lobbestael has been recognized as a Manning Award Star of the Week and his first Manning Award Player of the Week honor.

Although Tuel has been cleared to play, Lobbestael will be starting this Saturday as the Cougars take on the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl.

The Washington State fans came on strong as Lobbestael led for most of the week. Coming in right behind Lobbestael were Nathan Scheelhasse of Illinois and Arkansas' Tyler Wilson, finishing second and third, respectively. Scheelhasse threw for a career-high 391 yards as he led the Illini to a thrilling comeback from a 28-10 deficit, scoring the game-winning touchdown with 13 seconds to go in a 38-35 victory. Arkansas' Tyler Wilson broke a school record with 509 yards as he led an amazing comeback for the Razorbacks, erasing a 35-17 deficit with a huge second half in 42-38 win over Texas A&M.

The Manning Award was created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in 2004 to honor the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning. It is the only quarterback award that includes the candidates' bowl performances in its balloting.

The honor will be recognizing its eighth winner this year. USC's Matt Leinart was the inaugural winner of the award in 2005, followed by Texas' Vince Young in 2006. Both went on to be top 10 NFL draft picks. In 2007, LSU's JaMarcus Russell earned the award and was the NFL's No. 1 draft pick. Boston College's Matt Ryan claimed the award in 2008 and was drafted No. 3, quickly becoming the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. In 2009, Florida star Tim Tebow earned the honor - he also went on to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. The 2010 winner was Texas signal-caller Colt McCoy, the winningest quarterback in college football history, who was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the draft. Last year saw Auburn's Cameron Newton earn the award, prior to being selected No. 1 overall in the 2011 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers.